Brown: The best Thanksgiving ever

It was the best family Thanksgiving my wife and I ever had and it took place in a fairly small mess hall on the base.

I'll try to speed this up.

My 22-year-old son Charlie had just graduated from MSU, married Jana Bean of Wichita Falls, adding a "Brown" to her last name and he was signing up for his master's degree of study.

To help with expenses he joined the National Guard and was planning to take ROTC's officer candidate school.

But first he had to take a "grunt's" basic training while living in wooden barracks outside Lawton.

This was the standard push-ups, climbing walls, learning to march, to do physical exercise before sunup, crawling along on his belly with shots being fired overhead, etc.

This was the Army and he loved it. He wrote to say his drill instructor even let him keep his gloves on while doing push-ups in the snow! He must have had a soft heart.

Then before Thanksgiving he wrote that any basic trainee with family living within driving distance would be allowed on the base to eat with their sons or husbands. But we had to pay for our food on that holiday.

Being only 50 miles away we made plans along with younger brother Michael.

We drove up early Thanksgiving Day and stopped at the gate to get directions to the mess all. Never in my life was I treated with that much courtesy by those three non-coms. They even drew a map and said if we got lost call back to the gate and wrote down the telephone number.

We got to the mess hall and a sergeant took us, he didn't just point to a captain who got us seated in the mess hall and sent for our son who came in grinning wearing one stripe on his sleeve. When I asked why he said it was because he was a college graduate. I always wondered what all that money spent for tuition, books and fees was for — it was to be a buck private, and not just a private when taking basic training.

When it came time for dinner someone, I think it was a company commander, said a brief thanks for the food and living in the USA. I don't know what they'd do today.

We got in line and as a family were pushed to where a sergeant added up the commercial cost of the dinners for my wife and I along with younger son. I even had shrimp cocktail for one of my salads. There were a least 10 different desserts. Talk about a great feed! And it cost only about $2 each.

After the meal we were allowed to just sit and visit with our son and his friends who didn't really want to sit around with someone else's parents. Then we went over to look inside his barracks and 50 or so perfectly made up bed bunks. I couldn't even tell which one was his.

We kissed, hugged and said goodbye. His wife Jana came that evening and ate with her brand new husband, she was working as a waitress at the Wichita Falls Country Club and had to work noon Thanksgiving.

Now they both have their masters degrees from Cameron University.

Charlie Brown graduated from MSU's ROTC as a Second Lieutenant back then.

What happened in the past 23 years? There was Germany, Yugoslavia, South Korea, Arkansas and Alabama and a half dozen trips to Iran.

But now he is back at Fort Sill and I'm having Thanksgiving dinner with him tomorrow as Lt. Colonel Charles Brown and his wife Jana Brown, who is with the Museum of the Great Plains in Lawton.